La Lengua de Lazarus | Who? What? Where? Why? When? How?

Over the last few years I have asked and been asked many questions in relation to my calling. The questions have been around when I felt my calling, how I knew, where I feel called, what kind of ministry, why that kind of ministry, and many others. While I have time over winter break I hope to take some time to answer some of these questions. Some of them are questions I have long thought through and am pretty sure I know how to answer them while others are questions I have not really thought about or have thought about a lot and still don't know how to answer them. If you have any questions feel free to email them to me or simply post them in the comment section.

I want to start by telling a little bit of my history. I'm not sure that this is explicitly answering any of the common questions, but maybe it is. I was born in Dallas to a Southern Baptist Texan mother and a Jewish New Yorker father. (The story of how those two managed to find each other is a story for another day.) Although I was born in Dallas, my family would relocate to Knoxville, TN when I was only about 3 years old. It was once they were there that my mother first joined the Methodist Church. She had been searching for a church and found her home at Concord UMC where for the time being I am technically still a member. Hindsight 20/20 it makes sense that a Jew and Southern Baptist would find middle ground in a Methodist Church.

My family would attend worship and sunday school most sundays. In the 6th grade, I went through confirmation class. It was in confirmation that I would first begin to understand what it means to be a Christian and what it means to live out theology. I would obviously have a lot of learning and growing to do but there are still moments from that year that I remember fondly. It was then that I memorized the apostle's creed, Lord's prayer, and other important prayers and creeds. Although I did not always understand what I was saying, I would grow to understand them through the years. One of the moments I reflect on the most was the retreat that our confirmation class took towards the end of the year. It was then that we reflected on the year and did things like writing our own prayers and creeds as well as spent personal time in meditation. I noticed at that time that I took much of that more seriously than many of the other students but thought little of it.

At the end of my confirmation I then was baptized, joined the church, and was able to begin attending the Youth group. I'll pick up here in my next post.